When the Women Leaders in Media — Ukraine-EU Support Program was launched, we set out to unite media women around shared topics and challenges. Above all, strengthening their leadership and amplifying their voices in the industry.
Over several months, the program hosted five online sessions featuring experts from various fields — from neurobiology and feminist history to career development and international cooperation.
Here are some key insights from those sessions and feedback from participants.
International Partnerships: A Resource for Media Resilience in Times of Crisis with Olha Myrovych
The first webinar speaker was Olha Myrovych, head of the Lviv Media Forum NGO. Olha spoke about exchange programs, investment in partnerships, and sectoral challenges. The participants concluded that building partnerships is not about immediate returns but long-term investment — one that pays off years later. Long-term vision is essential.
“An organization inevitably reflects the values of its leader. I couldn’t work somewhere I don’t see a long-term perspective. I’m lucky my team shares this approach,” — said Olha Myrovych.
Participants also discussed the difference between donorship and partnership. A donor primarily provides resources, while a partnership creates value. For a fruitful partnership, Olha advised that both sides should ask themselves: Who are we? Who are we not? What change do we want to bring about together in our environment? The answers to these questions, she explained, form the strategy.
Now is the time for partnerships — long-term initiatives whose foundations were laid long before, shared the Head of Lviv Media Forum.
Partnership, she said, is a resource that helps achieve goals: sometimes it brings knowledge, sometimes funding, sometimes audience growth or moral support — “a sense of a shoulder next to you.” No matter how big or small an organization is, it always has some added value to contribute.
The group also discussed negative experiences — when representatives of organizations act inappropriately. The conclusion was clear: every team member should know where the boundaries lie and feel free to speak up when something feels uncomfortable.
“I finally understood the difference between donorship and partnership,”shared Maryna Synhaivska, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of LB.ua. “I was taking notes for two hours straight, analyzing what we’re doing right and what we’re not. The most valuable takeaway was the advice to ask questions and prove to your partners why cooperation will be beneficial for them.”
“I took away a lot to reflect on. These insights will stay with me, both for work and for life,” — said Oksana Ostapko, Deputy Director for Legal Affairs at Starlight Media.
“Stress, Burnout, and Self-Care” with Biologist Petro Chornomorets
The second webinar featured Petro Chornomorets, PhD in Biology, co-founder of Zminotvortsi, and lecturer at the Kyiv-Mohyla Business School and Maibutni school.
Together with Petro, participants explored the nature of fatigue, how it differs from burnout, beginning with an introduction to the brain, neurons, synapses, and how this complex system works. Many were surprised (or once again reassured) to learn that no food, drink, stimulant, or motivation can replace true rest — switching from work to personal life and getting enough sleep. “You need to let go of the idea that eating something can ‘restore the system,’” Petro emphasized. He explained that rest should be daily practice, not something postponed until exhaustion. Vacations, he added, are not rest in the biological sense — they’re for new experiences.
The group also discussed stress — how to distinguish it from fatigue, observe oneself, track events and workloads, and find what has the strongest impact. “Do you have time for loved ones, for friends, for books, for the theater, for a walk in the woods? A healthy state is when you have time for these — or other personally meaningful things, not related to your work,” said Petro.
To reduce the risk of burnout, he advised planning only about 30 percent of your full capacity for mandatory tasks — not 50 percent, and certainly not 100. This leaves room for urgent matters that inevitably arise, as well as for rest.
He also noted that those who work intensely for long stretches lose the ability to calm down and truly rest. Journalists, in particular, face a challenge of constant multitasking. It’s crucial to find ways to minimize multitasking and detach from distressing topics, maintaining ethical awareness and sensitivity.
“Finding Your Voice: Women’s Press as Platform, Network, and Movement” with historian Alla Shvets
The third session was led by Alla Shvets, Doctor of Philology, Professor at Lviv Polytechnic National University, and Senior Research Fellow at the Taras Shevchenko Institute of Literature of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. She spoke about women who made history, those who launched the first women’s periodicals and united their peers both at home and in the diaspora.
Olena Kysilevska, Milena Rudnytska, Nalalia Kobrynska, Olena Pchilka, Olha Kobylianska, Lesia Ukrainka, and many others sought sisterhood and freedom of expression. They voiced bold ideas, published periodicals and fiction, and looked for support from men — often finding it.
“At a time when the nation’s very existence was under threat, the number of publications created by women worked to strengthen Ukrainian identity, empower women, provide experience and training, and shape an entire generation of women journalists,” — concluded Alla Shvets.
In the twentieth century, most women’s publications emerged in western Ukraine. Yet Aliona Yatsyna, CEO of Kordon.Media (Sumy) and a war correspondent, noted that the geography of women’s press went far beyond Galicia. “We’ve talked to local researchers from Sumy region. When we speak of the Ukrainian context, we shouldn’t forget that many fascinating developments were also happening in other regions.”
It is important to know the names of the women whose shoulders we stand on. Thanks to Alla Shvets’s lecture, participants discovered new historical figures and learned more about those they already knew. More details about women’s activism of that era — and why the second almanac of women’s prose was never published — can be found here.
“Valuing yourself – a whim or a necessity?” practical session from coach Uliana Khodorivska
Uliana Khodorivska, career consultant and coach, spoke about how money, impostor syndrome, and self-worth are closely tied to self-belief.
Participants discussed the professional side of their identities — how much space work takes up in their lives. According to Uliana, the job market is a zone of exchange between needs and resources: if we stay in a workplace, it means that exchange is mutually beneficial.
Uliana discussed social interaction, ethical manipulation in communication, and why rejection during job searches doesn’t mean we’re bad professionals. Healthy work relationships, she emphasized, require equality and agency — and prior arrangements don’t have to be permanent. It’s okay to renegotiate, ask for changes in duties or pay.
Uliana also introduced the concept of competencies, noting that as we grow older and gain experience, their value should increase — and so should we. When we give away, sacrifice, or sell our competencies, we often lose track of how much energy we’re investing — and the reward becomes disproportionate. During group exercises, participants analyzed what they had accomplished over the past year. Uliana encouraged them not to “count achievements” but to notice even small completed tasks — to stop measuring their worth solely by big successes.
Uliana Khodorivska added that this reflection exercise is essential: when we perform the same tasks daily, it can feel as if nothing changes. It takes time to see how our competencies evolve and refine. Believing in yourself and caring for your needs is what gives you access to professional strength.
“For a professional, self-belief is not a whim — it’s a necessity” — Uliana Khodorivska noted.
“It felt like my brain got turned inside out. I’d never thought about my work in these terms. You gave me a new way to see the processes behind what I do, , — shared Maryna Synhaivska, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of LB.UA
“Three Dilemmas of Media Innovators” — conversation with media manager Andrii Boborykin
The fifth and final webinar brought participants together with Andrii Boborykin, Executive Director of Ukrainska Pravda. Andrii follows the innovation and reflects on how to deal with dilemmas faced by the media.
He spoke about the importance of paying attention to new technologies and approaches, weighing whether to chase them or strengthen existing formats. He discussed the steady growth of YouTube and how it pushes media to rethink their strategies: whether to stick to the traditional TV-style content cycle or to pivot toward digital-first production.
Andrii Boborykin also shared how the attention economy has changed with the internet and how content creators now hold more space in it. “What do we do with star authors who have all the tools to launch their own small projects that might grow into major ones? What new kinds of relationships should we build? I don’t yet have definitive answers,” — he admitted.
The group explored why traffic to text-based websites is declining and whether people are truly reading less. Andrii Boborykin says that reading competes with video now, but text-based news will live for a long time.
The conversation also touched on audience engagement, subscription models, personalization, paid content, newsroom efficiency with AI, and competition from Telegram channels.
“When you hear a drone or missile, the first thing you do is open Telegram to check where it’s flying from — not look out the window. That digital feed becomes more real than reality itself. That’s the main strength of Telegram channels, but that value is only relevant now — it won’t stay that way forever,”— noted Andrii Boborykin.
After the webinar, participants asked many questions and shared their thoughts. “I love syncing perspectives with Andrii. He has a brilliant mind, often sees things ahead of time, and notices what we might miss,” —said Anastasiya Ravva, Executive Producer at Espreso.TV.
“Planting oaks, valuing ourselves, and connect”
At the end of the Women Leaders in Media program, we asked the participants which of the meetings they remembered the most.
Viktoriia Beha, Deputy Editor-in-Chief at hromadske, said Uliana Khodorivska’s ideas struck a chord: “So much in our profession depends on our mental state, team atmosphere, and how we build connections. “All the other webinars were engaging too, nothing went unnoticed, but Uliana’s session was the top one for me.”
Oksana Ostapko, Deputy Director for Legal Affairs at Starlight Media, said the whole program was about values. “Women Leaders in Media gave me a lot of grounding — something I can rely on not only professionally, but on a deeper level. Alla Shvets’s lecture and the story of the First Garland anthology impressed me the most. It gave me tremendous energy.”
“The speakers were so diverse, I didn’t expect such a vibrant palette of topics,” — added Maryna Synhaivska, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of LB.UA
Maria Frey, member of the Suspilne board, shared that she would love to have more meetings. “In my opinion, that kind of programs should last six to nine months — a full academic year. From all the sessions, Alla Shvets impressed me deeply, but Petro Chornomorets’s cases and insights are the ones I still use.”
“It was my first learning experience in a women-only circle”, — said Marharyta Dykaliuk (Buhaichuk), Editor-in-Chief of Ukrainskyi Tyzhden, — “I noticed many things our newsroom is still missing. Change isn’t always fast but it’s necessary.”
Viktoriia Beha summed it up: “You don’t have to wait for someone else to organize something — we can unite and make things happen ourselves.”
The Women Leaders in Media — Ukraine-EU Support Program, organized by Women in Media, implemented in cooperation with the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) and supported by the Federal Foreign Office of Germany, launched in August 2025 and will continue through the end of the year. Ten women holding leadership positions in media were selected to participate.
The program aims to strengthen the role of women in media, promote inclusion and diversity, build partnerships with EU organizations and media outlets, support participants through sisterhood and community, and jointly develop gender equality and women’s leadership policies for Ukrainian media.